The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life

204 Pages·2006·0.76 MB·English

by  Oriah

The
Dance
Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life
ORIAH
For Linda Mulhall
for all the years of dancing as best friends
There are lovers content with longing
I’m not one of them.
Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)

CONTENTS
Prelude xi
The Dance xiii
ONE But Can You Dance? 1
TWO Dancing with the Mystery 18
THREE Out of Step 32
FOUR The Dancer 48
FIVE Choosing a Joyful Dance 65
SIX Hitting the Wall 80
SEVEN Dancing Together 93
EIGHT Dancing on the Earth 109
NINE The Choreography 124
TEN The Song 138
ELEVEN The Dance of Shared Solitudes 154
TWELVE The Sacred Emptiness 168
Acknowledgments 182
About the Author
Other books by Oriah
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Prelude
What if it truly doesn’t matter what you do but how you do whatever
you do?
How would this change what you choose to do with your life?
What if you could be more present and openhearted with each person
you met if you were working as a cashier in a corner store, or as a
parking lot attendant, than you could if you were doing a job you
think is more important?
How would this change how you want to spend your precious time
on this earth?
What if your contribution to the world and the fulfillment of your own
happiness is not dependent upon discovering a better method of
prayer or technique of meditation, not dependent upon reading the
right book or attending the right seminar, but upon really seeing and
deeply appreciating yourself and the world as they are right now?
How would this affect your search for spiritual development?
What if there is no need to change, no need to try to transform yourself
into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving
or wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are end-
lessly trying to be better?
What if the task is simply to unfold, to become who you already are
in your essential nature—gentle, compassionate, and capable of living
fully and passionately present?
xii / The Dance
How would this affect how you feel when you wake up in the morning?
What if who you essentially are right now is all that you are ever
going to be?
How would this affect how you feel about your future?
What if the essence of who you are and always have been is enough?
How would this affect how you see and feel about your past?
What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really
want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really
am?
How would this change what you think you have to learn?
What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through
striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and
places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement we
need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?
What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates
beauty in the world will arise from deep within and guide you every
time you simply pay attention and wait?
How would this shape your stillness, your movement, your willingness
to follow this impulse, to just let go and dance?